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The Anti-Trend

Talk about conflicting trends: domestic outsourcing is more popular than ever, yet at the same time consumers are DIY-ing like there’s no tomorrow: as a hobby or to save money. For every trend, there’s an anti-trend!

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One core idea of the “the savage girl” by alex shakar is the concept of “paradessence” (short for “paradoxical essence”). He suggests: “Every product has this paradoxical essence. Two opposing desires that it can promise to satisfy simultaneously.” The paradessence is the “schismatic core” or “broken soul” of every consumer product. Examples are coffee (stimulation and relaxation), icecream (eroticism and innocence or semen and mothers milk)… Identifying the paradessence of a product is the key to its branding and selling. Franz Liebl, professor for strategic marketing at UdK berlin, germany, suggests that all important trends are characterized by a paradessence – therefore observable through them.